The Mouse Is Planning Another Visit To WONDERLAND!!

Considering the billion dollars in box office that the first ALICE IN WONDERLAND did for Disney, it's a bit of a surprise it's taken nearly two years for The Mouse to choose to start moving forward on a sequel. I guess they wanted to get the wheels in motion on the Broadway musical version first (yes, that's really happening).

But now it's full steam ahead with development for ALICE IN WONDERLAND 2 with Linda Woolverton, who penned the first film, being brought back to write the screenplay for the follow-up, according to Variety. Woolverton is most likely going to have to start fresh on story, as the first film used up a lot of Lewis Carroll's ideas from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass, but it appears that there's at least a framework for the sequel at this point in order to get the ball rolling. What there isn't though is a commitment from Tim Burton to direct once more. Perhaps that ship has sailed though after Burton turned out one of his better works in some time this year with FRANKENWEENIE. Then again, that film didn't perform nearly as well at the box office as ALICE, so he might be tempted back into WONDERLAND just for that taste of success.

Of course that's all speculation one way or the other... but the sure fire thing that is happening is that Mia Wasikowska will be heading down the rabbit hole once again.

Warmed over "hero's journey" pablum, dressed up in Wonderland garb. Go back and read the original books, then tell me how you get from there to yet another tired riff on the "prophesied chosen one" who has to "fulfill their destiny," slay the dragon with their magic sword and restore the rightful ruler to the throne. The ALICE books are so much more sly and subversive than that -- not to mention filled with, you know, WONDER. They ought to use the success of their "sequel" to go back and put that kind of budget into an honest-to-goodness adaptation of the original. Technology has finally advanced to the point where Carroll's visions can be fully realized without recourse to cartoon animation or people prancing around in costumes, if only they could find the right director (someone like Del Toro or Cuaron) and give them a budget...

Teh fuk? "Modern day" 3D has been around since the early 00's. Maybe "first 3D movie after Avatar popularized the format".
Anyways, I've been meaning to re-watch Alice In Wonderland. I didn't think it was as bad as many said it was, but then again, I liked Burton's Planet Of The Apes AND Dark Shadows, so what do I know?

And I know we all miss him. He really was unique and I have zero hope anyone will ever recreate the magic he filled his creations. But I'd still like to see his world brought back to the screen. I had completely given up hope of there ever being anything out of the studio but hack job money grabs until I saw MirrorMask. It wasn't a perfect film. But it was good. Good in the old Henson way. And it allowed me to hope his kids might be able to pull off a new Dark Crystal.

They're usually just about a sweet, boring little girl with a barrage of weird things happening to her. In fact, the character of Alice is a little, rational person in a big, irrational world, and no one seems to GET that. The problem with Burton's version is different, though. Lewis Carroll wrote a subversive book with no moral whatsoever, and it was the pointless, nonsensical quality that distinguished it from other kids' books and made it unique. But under Burton's guidance, the Jabberwocky poem has been transformed into the very thing that Lewis Carroll was spoofing when he wrote it.

What you said really is the final word on this idea. Burton's version was excruciatingly awful, and was the final nail in his coffin for me. There is nothing he can do that will make up for his colossal mis-fire with Alice. The fact that it made a billion dollars is sickening.

You hit the nail on the head, pdb. Your observation reminds me of the awful Hallmark TV version with Whoopi Goldberg and Martin Short, whose creators decided that the point of Alice's adventures was that each person she met in Wonderland would impart a special lesson to help boost her self-image so that she could find the courage to perform at a recital.
Honestly, my favorite ALICE adaptation remains the animated Disney version. It's not nearly as faithful to the text as some versions, and it could use a little more of Carroll's wordplay -- but it pulls off the dreamlike collision of sense and nonsense quite well. Also, Sterling Holloway's Cheshire Cat is exactly the right amount of disturbing.

First problem is the age of Alice. I just don't buy a 20 year old running around Wonderland when the original story was very much through the eyes of a child no more than 8 years old. It should have been a children's films as ageing the character in such a way completely changes what it is.
The whole battle scene and "chosen one" theme was horrendous and so cliche. Why do we need battle scenes in an Alice in Wonderland story?
Another problem is Wonderland (or Underland as I think they call it here) is a real place this time - not a child's imagination. They tell her she was summoned there, rather than finding it as a result of curiosity.
There's also too much focus on the Mad Hatter, who is made into more of a warrior this time than a strange encounter. Basically the entire film was not how I'd expect an Alice in Wonderland film to be at all. It felt like a Narnia film or something.
The good thing is Alice In Wonderland is public domain so anyone can have a go at getting it right. We don't have to just rely on Disney and Burton.

Official Synopsis:
"ALICE WONDERLAND 2: MEN ARE HORRIBLE finds the brave and independent Alice having to contend with the prospect of having to be around horrible men in her everyday life. Then one day she hallucinates again and starts imagining the magical wonderland, a place where she is hailed as supreme ruler over all living things and the males are subservient to only her. Yet, there is a storm coming in the form of "John", a man who actually thinks for himself and believes no one, regardless of gender, should have complete rule over people. "John" is not tall, physically attractive, or rich, so, he is a devastating monster of a villain and poses a significant threat to Alice's selfish drug-induced coma. Will Alice be able to defeat this man and return to her life of solitude and servants? Find out in this exciting new entry in Disney's library of films."
Can't wait.

Yes, his best work is his earlier work (everything from Pee-Wee to Ed Wood), but I don't understand why so many people have turned against him. In particular, the charge that all his movies look the same bewilders me: compare Beetlejuice to Ed Wood to Edward Scissorhands to Planet of the Apes to Big Fish. Also, the very recent Sweeney Todd is one of his best movies, and Corpse Bride and 9 were both wonderful. And Frankenweenie was a total return to form. People complain that Hollywood does everything by the numbers, but when someone like Burton tries to do something different, everyone jumps on the negativity bandwagon.
The problem with Burton's remake of Willy Wonka is that it was unnecessary... it only missed the mark when compared to the original film. Similarly, the problem with Burton's "Alice" is that it totally disregarded the source material... if Lewis Carroll's original book did not exist, Burton's version would have been fun.

Was like the experience of watching Coppola's version of Dracula. Before I saw the film I really believed that it would be the definitive adaptation of Bram Stoker's book. Well, I left the theatre amazed at Coppola's technical wizardry, but his movie was NOT Bram Stoker's Dracula at all, and I realized that a great opportunity had been squandered. Burton had the chance to make a faithful Alice movie, one with all the darkness and nuance intact, and he blew it.

But my three-year old daughter loves it so I give it a pass for that. I just have to accept that Burton is now making films for the next generation to enjoy, not me. At least Frankenweenie was a lot better than CatCF and Alice.

Frankenweenie, too. The problem with films like Alice, CATCF and Planet of the Apes is that Burton played them too safe. The visuals in those films are amazing, but Burton the iconoclast is fast disappearing. Today's audiences seem to like his lighter, friendlier work like Charlie and Alice more than stuff like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (which is a really fun movie, by the way).